Intrinsic: a New Generation of Avengers
by kkXdd
Summary: In the aftermath of the Snappening and its reversal, S.H.I.E.L.D. is reformed and Stark is its new director. His first action is to properly prepare Earth for future threats, due to the lost heroes. 12 years later, six teens must step up to the plate, learning to deal with powers they never knew they had, getting ready to fight for the first time, all while still trying to grow up.
1. Prologue

**Hey guys. First, I'd like to say that I'm writing this fic after Infinity War's release, but before Avengers 4's release. Thus, it's canon divergent after Infinity War. Another thing is that this fic assumes that a lot of the snap's effects have been reversed, and some of the heroes had to be sacrificed in order to save the ones that died. Hence, the people that would be dead now are: Steve Rogers, Rhodey, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton. The only ORIGINAL Avengers that are still alive are Tony and Thor.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable Marvel characters. Their rights belong to Marvel and their parent company.**

* * *

He flipped through the array of documents, sighing. A look of confusion and incredulity came on his face. "This is insane." He sounded exasperated as he threw the papers across the table.

A man with an eyepatch, who took the papers and reorganized them. "That's surprising, coming from you, Stark."

"Surprising?" Stark scoffed. He stood up from his chair. "What's surprising is that the former director of a dead organization decided that they'd show up on my doorstep with this kind of bullshit."

"Yeah, I'm not a director anymore, but S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't dead."

The look of anger on Tony's face softened. His body relaxed, sitting back down, and his eyes slowly widened. "What?"

Fury locked his eyes on Tony as he got up. He paced around the table. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been working underground for a long time. Thought you'd realize that when I talked to you before Sokovia."

Tony stayed silent for a moment. He grasped his chin trying to understand. "So you mean all this time, we could've just reached out, and you'd be there?"

"Maybe not like that, but yeah."

Tony shook his head. "God." He paused, taking in the realization. He placed himself back in reality, talking slowly. "This still doesn't do anything to the fact that what you just showed me is bullshit. I mean, is this even legal?"

"I imagine that the Justice Department giving us their blessing is a sign it's legal." Fury watched Stark's fiery demeanor appear again. "And I think you and I both know why we need this program."

"Yeah," Tony spat. "And I just completely agree that you should pick the destiny of all these kids, some of them way before they can even add 1+1. Infuse their DNA with superpowered DNA. Totally fine."

"This is a precaution."

"This is a moral issue."

"That never came across your mind when you made Ultron."

Tony sprang up once again and nearly yelled. "That was a mistake." He lowered his voice and looked disgusted. "I'm not gonna make the same one again."

"Mistake or not, we've already done it." Fury took a file and opened it to the last page. His one eye looked down on its contents before showing it to Tony. Red writing sat on all of the lines; each one was followed by a signature and a date. All the dates were from the past week.

"You guys are idiots." Tony sounded bitter as he crossed his arms. "You know that being an enhanced means nothing."

"Maybe. But I think we need to have the powers we know work with the heroes of the future."

"Their personalities are gonna everything. Fuck, the only reason Cap was chosen was because he was Mr. Nice Guy." Tony walked up to Fury and took the file out of his hands. His eyes glossed over the kid's name. "A total hero in his personality," he emphasized. He glanced at Fury again and closed the file. "Not to be a debbie downer, but for all you know, these kids could grow up to be awful. How do you know you're not making a villain instead of a hero?"

"Keep an eye on them." Fury took the file back. "Make sure they stay good. That'll be your job."

"My job? I'm sorry, I thought you were the director."

"I _was_." Fury took the rest of the files on the table. "It would've been my job, but like you and I agreed, I no longer fill that position. I had to appoint a new director." He handed them to Tony. "So now, it's yours, Director Stark."

Stark's jaw hung open. "Are you for real?" He grabbed ahold of all the documents again and returned to his chair.

Nick started heading towards the door but stopped halfway. "I'm gonna stick around S.H.I.E.L.D. for a little while to help the transition in leadership, but I think you should get started by fully debriefing yourself." He stared at the man for a little while before turning back around and making his exit.

Stark stayed, in awe, as he cleared his mind and looked through all the documents without the intent to reject. The children in the files came from all sorts of backgrounds, ranging from age 3 to 6. Each kid seemed to be assigned the DNA of an existing or now deceased Avenger, much to his dismay. The enormity of the task at hand suddenly became apparent to him, as did the weight of his new title as director.

"There was a reason why I made Pepper the CEO." He took out his phone and turned it on. He swiped through his contacts to get to Pepper's number.

He stared at the face of his wife, smiling and excited. In her arms was their child. He pressed call.

The ringing was answered. "Hello darling," he sighed. Stark bit his lip. "I need to talk to you about the kid. The kid's fine, it's just that I need them to be safe..."

He walked away from the table.

* * *

 **Hey. This is my take on a possible 'next generation Avengers' scenario after Infinity War. I want to make this story feel first and foremost like a coming-of-age, character-based piece that's focused on the growth of the characters. There will be action, with hopefully high stakes, but I'm going to focus on their formation and dynamics first.**

 **I won't be using HYDRA as a main villain in this story. I think it's overused as an idea, and I have a different idea that I think is more 'grounded.' I'm going to use a collection of OCs (which will have the powers of some of the current Avengers) and canon characters from the comics to give a balance between old and new. I'm thinking of having a total of 6 or 7 characters at the most, and I won't reveal the powers of the OCs immediately, though I think you'll be able to tell very easily. The canon characters will be self explanatory, I hope!**

 **Follow, Favorite, Review, do whatever you want, and stay tuned!**


	2. Enter: Hunter

**Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable Marvel characters. Their rights belong to Marvel and their parent company.**

* * *

"Hey Hunter!"

The teen turned around to find the source of the voice, finding his friend striding through the school hallway wearing a new letterman jacket. Hunter grinned as he walked toward his friend.

"Jacob!" He grabbed ahold of his friend's hand, pulling him in from a brief hug, pat on the back, and then pulled away. Hunter looked at the heavy, blue garment and looked back up to Jacob's face. "Nice jacket, bro."

"I know, right?" Jacob took a step back and saw Hunter not wearing a jacket. "Where's yours?"

Hunter half-raised his eyebrows. "I didn't even know they were in yet."

"They're giving it to all the varsity players this year in room 203." Jacob glanced backwards, as if to point. "Still feels weird that we're seniors now."

"Tell me about it. Four years of high school and I'm still gonna see you around in college," Hunter joked.

Jacob laughed. Their history went even further back.

The two teens met in the first grade, sticking together from elementary to middle school, up to this point. Their friendship stayed strong thanks to the fact that they lived a few houses away from each other, but they were lucky that they shared the same interests — mostly.

They both liked the same kind of video games. They both dived headfirst into football together, which is probably the thing that kept them together the most, but other than those two things, they split apart. Jacob, the somewhat bigger and perhaps more muscular of the two went into wrestling for winter, while Hunter was the slimmer and leaner of the two, and went into baseball for spring.

The two also had different passions in school too; Hunter couldn't get enough of history, and Jacob had an unusually profound passion for science. Both were exceptionally bright in their respective subjects, landing them in high level classes.

"Well I gotta get to class, so I'll see you later." Jacob nodded at Hunter and was about to head to AP Physics. He paused and dropped a few words to his friend before walking off. "Try to get your letterman now!"

Hunter nodded back before walking to room 203. When he walked in, he found three tables were lined up on the side, with people handing out the personalized jackets. He walked up to one and gave them his last name. "Meichi."

"Ah Hunter," the teacher said on the other side. "The star quarterback."

Hunter sighed at the phrase. "Don't call me that, please. I'm not really a star."

"You're the fastest player out there, and your reflexes are top-notch. Your throw and aim are amazing, and you're one of the strongest players out there. You're a leader and a quarterback, and everybody's eyes are on you." The teacher looked through the list, marked off Hunter's name, and started to dig through the boxes. "I think you're a star."

"I'm flattered," Hunter said. "But I don't think I'm the fastest or strongest. I just do my job. I'm fast and strong, but Jacob's way stronger. Plus, he can handle tackles better."

The teacher glanced at Hunter. "That's true," she said before pulling out a jacket. She unfolded it and inspected it. "Jacob's probably the strongest there is; as in, the strongest player here." She gave the jacket to Hunter. "Here's your jacket."

Hunter muttered a little thanks as he took the jacket.

He moved out of the room and lingered just a few feet from the door. His last name was embroidered across the back. Hunter felt the wool of the sleeves with his hands before starting to put it on.

His distraction kept him from noticing a girl walking down the hallway. He felt an impact against his left arm; a turn revealed a short girl with olive skin. She looked like a sophomore — at least that's what Hunter guessed.

The girl got flustered real quick. "Uh… Excuse me." She averted her eyes away from the tall player.

"Hey, sorry," Hunter said softly, but he trailed off as the girl ignored him and quickly walked past. "I guess…"

He didn't pay much mind to his ignored compliment. Instead, he headed toward the next period of the day.

* * *

"Today, we're going to be jumping ahead to a more immediate past," the teacher said, walking through the classroom. "This unit will be focused on modern Enhanced individuals, and their impact on today's society and the law."

Hunter looked up, interest piqued, since he didn't expect the topic to come up in his AP U.S. Government class. He had an affinity towards the heroes that most of everyone admired, and loved to study and read up on whatever was available about them.

"We'll have a little research project before we dive into the content. Everyone will have an opportunity to look up whatever hero they choose." The teacher picked up a cup with a bunch of popsicle sticks. "I know we're in high school, but to keep things fair, I'm going to randomly pick a person out of this cup and they get to choose which hero they want first. Since the class is small, only two students can share the same hero."

The class groaned. Hunter stayed quiet and leaned a bit backward. In his mind, he went over all the heroes he knew of. From the Avengers, the small hero Defenders, and the whole bunch of more hidden and obscure Enhanced people out there.

The teacher shook the cup around and took out a single stick. "Hunter!"

The teen didn't expect his name to be called first. He thought quickly.

"Captain America," he said. "Steve Rogers."

"Nice," the teacher muttered. He wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Behind him, Hunter heard a couple of classmates whisper.

"He's Japanese," he heard. "Why would he choose Cap of all people?"

Hunter ignored that. It hurt, but he's dealt with things like that too many times before.

"I don't even think Cap's a hero. Sure, he helped out in New York, but look at what he did in D.C. Hell, look at the thing in Lagos. He's reckless."

Hunter couldn't ignore that. He turned around and faced the girl that was talking. "He's done a whole lot more than you," he muttered. "Remember when we were 5? 6? When the world was practically ending? Cap helped fix things. My family isn't half gone because he and the rest of the Avengers reversed whatever happened."

"How do you know the Captain actually helped out?"

Hunter stood up very suddenly.

The teacher quickly intervened. "Hey. Do this another time. It's time to get to work."

He reluctantly sat himself back down. Hunter faced forward and took out his phone for research. Recalling what the girl said about D.C., he tried to look up stuff about the incident.

Turns out, Cap led the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time since it was infested by some dangerous organization called HYDRA. He struggled with whether or not it was worth it since many citizens looked up to S.H.I.E.L.D. and considered them to be their security. Cap decided that he needed to take the risk and not compromise his morals.

Hunter liked that.

* * *

Sweat dripped from his head, his hair drenched, as he walked into his home. He'd just come home from football practice, and was ready to pass out in his bed.

One thing on his mind, though, was how oddly energetic he felt right now. No — energetic was not the right word. He didn't feel like he had energy to use. But he wasn't drained.

Hunter trekked up the stairs with his backpack slung over his shoulder. He didn't feel drained, but felt like there was something new inside him building each day. He felt tougher. He looked down at his hands, which were very mildly calloused from the constant throws and catches of the football season.

He faced the door to his bedroom and paused. He rubbed his hands. His mind wandered to earlier in the day. _Did that teacher really mean it when they said I'm the fastest and one of the strongest?_ He never thought that highly of himself.

He gripped the door knob and pulled and —

"Oh fuck." Hunter's eyes widened as the quick motion ripped the door off its hinges. In his hand was the entire door hanging from the handle.

Immediately he started freaking out, like any sane teen would when they suddenly break a door. He carefully slid inside and realigned the door with the hinges, but he knew it was noticeable that it was simply broken.

Suddenly, any bit of tiredness washed away, replaced by a mix of confusion, curiosity, and mild fear. Hunter dropped his backpack and looked down at the palms of hands once again. "How did I do that?"

* * *

 **Please forgive the short chapters, but I like to have quite a bit of exposition before diving straight into the action. Follow, favorite, and review if you like this story!**


End file.
